COVID-19 and Resident Minors at Children Homes

Protocols have been installed at children’s homes across the country as the Ministry of Human Development prepares home managements for COVID-19. On average, COVID-19 is milder on children than it is on the older population. Still to cut exposure, visits to the homes are no longer being permitted and a lockdown has also been put in place as a preventative strategy. Today, News Five visited with the Liberty Foundation in Ladyville where the preschool and day care services have been suspended until further notice while other measures such as social-distancing and hand washing exercise have been put imposed. 

Agatha Valentine

Agatha Valentine, Executive Director, Liberty Foundation

“We have a preschool and a day care. Well the ministry had put out a release to close the preschool; Ministry of Human development also gave us directives to close the day care. For us at the home, all the residents are contained.  We have several types of accommodations where we have the more communal type and we have the more individualized type accommodations. So what we have put in place is all the sanitary measures—hand sanitizers. We also have additional sinks in place and things like that so that the children can wash their hands as much as possible. And that is the reason why we have to be very careful in the institution because there is not a lot of space for us to work with. Some of the dorms are really communal so we have to be very careful with who comes into the institution. So we don’t have any visitors which is one of the things that will have a huge impact on us because we rely on people coming into Liberty for financial sustainability. So that’s gonna have a huge impact on the institution.”

Duane Moody

“Has an isolation area been identified?”

Agatha Valentine

“Yes we do have in place a quarantine room and an isolation room that is in building ten. The ministry is currently in the process of training staff in the use of protective gears.”